Alice in Murderland
by Stingjc1
Summary: The Mad Hatter has escaped from Arkham Asylum, and this time he's out to prove himself.
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1 

"Of course, Edward. We'll get you your puzzle books as soon as it's in the budget," said the attendant as he left one of Arkham Asylum's unique cells. Each cell was uniquely designed for each of its captives, but supplies themselves were scarce. A good many inmates wanted items they could call their own. Yet, the budget seemed tighter than usual. No gifts just appeared out of thin air.

The attendant walked down the hall. Fluorescent lights lit his path in the rather grim hallway. On either side of him, cells were fashioned out of various materials. For instance, Poison Ivy's cell was made entirely of steel. It took a few times before the authorities at the asylum had realized that Ivy could grow plants that burst through usual stone or glass. And, of course, no vegetation of any kind was to be admitted to her vicinity.

"No, Pamela," said the attendant, not even letting the woman behind the bars make her almost daily inquiry. "We cannot allow any plants in your room. But those gardening magazine subscription you asked for earlier this month may be here any day, so just keep waiting."

The Joker's cell down at the end of the hall was formed from a bulletproof Plexiglas. The doctors had decided that the Joker needed to be under constant surveillance, so the transparent cell was a necessity. The attendant laughed as the Joker lowered his pants and placed his rear against the glass. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," laughed the attendant. "The moon is bright white tonight, Joker."

The attendant moved down the halls checking on each occupant. He smiled and waved at Harley Quinn, who was reading some romance novel. He had a nearly two minute conversation with Two-Face, which was a feat in itself since those conversations were since Two-Face had such a dual personality. Ex-professor Crane was reading some scary story about scarecrows coming to life in rural regions. His recent incarceration had been all over the newspapers. Apparently, Crane had escaped and released one of his infamous fear toxins at one of the mayor's galas. People were insane with fear before Batman broke it up, of course. "Have a good night, Crane," said the attendant.

Finally, the man came across a cell with which he was slightly unfamiliar. He had seen the occupant many times before, but for some reason, he could never remember his name. Not even his alias. The guy was a nut-job, just like the other inmates, but he definitely didn't strike the fear in the hearts of Gothamites like the name Joker did.

He consulted his chart and peered in the dark room. "Umm…is a Mr. Tetch, a Jervis Tetch in there?" He could see a shadow near the window, but for some reason, the lights around the room were extinguished. "Helloooo? I see you there. Answer me, please."

After just a moment's silence, an eerie voice rang out from the darkened room.

"ThE mOoN WaS sHiNiNg sULkiLy, BeCaUsE ShE ThOuGhT tHe SuN HaD gOt nO BuSiNeSS tO bE ThErE aFtEr tHe DaY wAs dOnE."

A shiver ran through the attendant as he gazed down at his clipboard chart. "Ohh…The Mad Hatter, eh? Well, no wonder. That must be a line from Alice in Wonderland then."

"It's Through the Looking-Glass actually, dolt." The voice seemed normal enough when nothing was being recited.

"Okay, okay. I apologize. Moving on." And the attendant walked on through the hallway to finish his rounds.

Meanwhile, Jervis sat on the floor of his cell and gazed out of the window. He reached up and removed one of the bars from his window without much effort. A smile crept across his face.

"Don't worry, Jervis," he said to himself. "They'll know your name soon enough. Everyone will." Slowly, he removed what appeared to be a nail file from underneath his mattress. Slowly, he ground the file across the skin on his right arm until blood came to the surface. His smile grew wider. "Everyone will."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A light flashed across the stone of the small room. "He escaped sometime between ten last night and eight this morning," said one of the Gotham police in the cell at the asylum. "The attendant for this place checked on all inmates last night at around ten, and he verifies that Tetch was in his cell then. He recited some poem."

"Tetch's style," replied Commissioner Gordon. Cameras were flashing all over the cell as the scene was investigated. "Most likely from Alice. He is the Mad Hatter, after all."

"Yeah. Well, that's what we had on file. I definitely didn't remember him, though. Not with all the crazies in this town. I once had a close encounter with the Penguin, you know, chief. The guy almost killed me with one of those exploding umbrellas. I wouldn't have made it if-"

"Yeah, I know. If Batman hadn't been there. It seems we call on him more than ever nowadays."

"I am here to help you, Gordon," came a deep voice behind the Commissioner. Gordon would have jumped if Batman didn't always appear out of nowhere. He was used to it by now.

"I was wondering when you'd get here, Batman. The Mad Hatter has escaped this time. And he left a message for us all." Gordon pointed to the wall of the asylum cell where a message was scrawled in a red substance that Batman immediately recognized as blood.

**nO rOoM! nO RoOm!**

Batman walked up to the message scribbled on the wall and grazed his fingers over the blood. Nothing came off the message. "It's dry. He must have escaped late last night. How did he get out?"

The Commissioner sighed. "One of the nurses must have left a nail file in his room one day. He used it on the bars," he said, pointing to the only window leaving the room. "He must have worked on it for days. And then last night, he just removed the bars and scrambled out. We found the file outside the room. He knew he wouldn't need it anymore. But no trace of where he went. Tetch could be anywhere in Gotham right now. We'll never find him unless he makes a move first."

"He will," said Batman darkly. "They always do."

"You'd better watch this one, though. I've never known him to take such drastic measures. I mean, cutting himself to leave a mess-," Gordon stopped and looked around. Batman had disappeared. "I hate it when he does that."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

"Alfred, in the library there should be a copy of-"

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by a Mr. Lewis Carroll. With a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. I'm a step ahead of you today, sir."

"It seems you are," Batman said with a light smile on his face. He was wearing the entire Batman costume sans the cowl, but anytime he was in the Bat-cave, he took upon the persona of the Dark Knight. "I see you heard that the Mad Hatter has escaped again."

"Yes, it was all over the news this morning. I do say, he isn't one you hear much about."

"No. But he's as deadly as most of the others. I can only imagine what he has in store for Gotham this time."

Alfred looked as if he was trying to remember something. "What precisely did he do last time? Didn't he use his mind control devices to try and kill Mayor Hill?"

"Yes. And I don't know who he could be going after this time," said Batman darkly. Alfred knew that Batman hated not knowing his enemy's next move.

"Master Bruce, it would be good if you came up to eat, really. You need some time out of this dank, mildewed cave. You'll catch your death of cold."

"I can't, Alfred. I need to figure out why Tetch's twisted mind wrote this message on the wall." He flicked a few switches on the computer console in front of him, and almost immediately, a host of images appeared on screen. They all were pictures Batman had secretly taken at the scene of Tetch's disappearance. And they all showed the message Tetch had scrawled on the cell wall in his own blood.

"No room?" said Alfred slowly. "Now, I know that's familiar." Alfred flipped through his copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "This used to be my favorite children's book," he continued absent-mindedly. "And I know that line is in here somewhere."

As he flipped rapidly, Batman took a bit of his breakfast.

"Aha! Here it is. It seems the March Hare and the Mad Hatter yelled 'No room!' to Alice at the very start of the Mad Tea Party. I don't know why Mr. Tetch would use the line in his cell room."

Batman chewed on a piece of bacon, considering what he knew of Jervis. "Well, it fits well. 'No room' meaning that he couldn't stand being in the room anymore. And he left. Hopefully, that's all it meant. For the sake of Gotham, I pray that's all it meant."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

"And now you say 'I didn't know it was _your_ table'," said an unwavering voice.

The girls head was pulled back by her ponytail. Her make-up was smeared all over her face as if she'd been crying for hours. "Are you gonna kill me?" she finally got out of her mouth as she tasted her own salty tears.

"That's not the right line!" yelled the Mad Hatter, his fist yanking back her hair farther. "Say the line!" His hat was lopsided on his head, but his face was still broken in a big grin.

"Why are you doing this to me?" the girl screamed. "Why did you pick me?" Her blouse was completely soaked in tears and her voice was unsteady and growing more high-pitched as time went by.

"You were chosen," he said quietly in her ear. "You should be honored. To be immortalized in Carroll's frabjous words. I would give my own head."

The girl's eyes widened with fear.

"Now, SAY THE WORDS!" he screamed.

Amidst tears and crying, she finally said the words. "I didn't know it was your table."

"Good, good. Now you say 'it's laid for a great many more than three'," replied the villainous man, who was still holding her hair back with his gloved hands.

"It's laid for a great many more than three," she sputtered. It was hard for her to talk with the crying and her neck stretched so far back.

"Good. Now it's my turn," said the Mad Hatter. His grin widened. "YoUr hAiR WaNtS CuTTiNg."

He reached into the container of barbacide on the floor and removed a pair of scissors. The scissors dripped the blue liquid all over the floor as he lowered them towards her head.

"Please let me go now. Please," the girl cried frantically as she saw the glimmer of the scissors.

Her screams only lasted a few more seconds before a muffled gurgling sound filled the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

"Also in today's news, the body of a woman was found at a local beauty parlor. Twenty-three-year-old Alice Lockhart was found decapitated in Gotham Beauty Salon on Ninth Street. Police sources believe that Jervis Tetch, a man who calls himself The Mad Hatter is the perpetrator. His crimes, usually involving the Alice in Wonderland children's books, haven't been seen in Gotham City since his incarceration ten months ago. He recently escaped from Arkham Asylum. He is considered armed and dangerous, and we remind-"

"How do they find out so quickly!" yelled Commissioner Gordon. He threw a pencil at the television screen in his office. "If my men were as efficient as that damned press, there'd be no crime in this town!"

"But then, you'd be out of a job," said Batman who appeared out of the office's shadows.

"Oh, thank God, you're here. The Mad Hatter has committed a murder, and-"

"I know. I heard. I've been to the crime scene, but your guys cleaned it up already."

"Yeah. The Mayor doesn't want you helping, so he's told us to take every piece of evidence from the scene." Gordon opened his desk drawer and extracted a few pieces of paper. "But I saved these pictures for you. They're not pretty, though, so brace yourself."

"So, he did take off her head," said Batman, not amused in the least.

"Yeah, as you can see, we found it not far from the body. But it…umm…well, it had no hair on it." Gordon hated referring to a person's body as "it", but in this case, it would help him talk about it without losing his lunch.

"And these are all from her head?" asked Batman pointing to the tresses of hair strewn about the ground.

"Yeah. The salon owners clean thoroughly every night before they leave the place. Tetch must have snatched a key from one of the rooms during the day and then snuck in that night with the girl."

"And why was she there?"

"Apparently, she was abducted from her home yesterday. We checked it out, and there are signs of a struggle on the interior of the house. He must have just knocked, she came to the door, and he knocked her out inside."

Batman's lips tightened underneath his mask. "That's not really Jervis's style, though."

"We know. Usually, he's got those mind control thingies, but it seems he's just taking a different approach. We don't know why that could be, though." Gordon seemed more than upset. Batman usually only saw him this way when the Joker escaped, which unfortunately was very often. Gordon had never been so upset about any other criminal that Batman could remember.

"Don't worry. We'll get him," said Batman reassuringly.

"Yeah. But how many more people will die before we do?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

The Mad Hatter's shoes echoed on the waxed floors beneath his feet. In fact, the only other sounds were the Hatter's chuckles and the constant sliding of the burlap sack he was lugging.

"TwInKle, tWiNkLe, LiTtLe BaT! hOw i WoNdEr wHaT yOu'Re aT!" he sang almost merrily as he pulled the bag into one of the rooms on the side of the hall. He neared one of the desks in this classroom and opened the sack. "Are you ready for your big day, my dear?"

The woman inside the sack opened her eyes groggily. She looked as if she was having trouble keeping them open.

"The drugs will wear off soon, my dear sweet Alice. Luckily, I don't need you to say anything. I can get started without your help."

Her eyes opened a bit again, but only just for a while. The Mad Hatter poked her, and she moaned slightly. She was awake, and she apparently could sense feeling. It was only her motor skills that seemed to be affected by the drugs. He picked her body up from the floor and laid her across the desk that he had dragged her.

"Let me ask you a riddle, my dear Alice. I know you'll love it," he said as he removed a small woodcarving knife from his coat pocket.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

**wHy Is A rAvEn LiKe a wRiTiNg DeSk?**

Gordon shook his head in disbelief. The message was carved across the girl's stomach. The Mad Hatter had used her body as a piece of paper with her blood as the ink. It disgusted Gordon beyond even some of the Joker's crimes. At least the Joker usually just used that Smylex gas to make his victims laugh to death. No, it wasn't humane. But it was better than this. And in one of Gotham's elementary schools, no less.

"He's taking new measures."

Gordon spun around, not believing the voice he had heard. "Batman? But it's still daytime."

"If Mayor Hill is wiping all the crime scenes clean, I need to be here before he can do that. Day or night. I have to do this." Batman looked less than thrilled to be present during the day. He had made a vow a long time ago that he would only work under the cover of darkness. It was the way the bat worked, and it was the way he had decided he would work. But this was becoming a case he needed to spend more time with. They had no leads as to the Hatter's whereabouts or where he would strike next.

"Yes, of course."

"Who is the victim?" Batman could hardly look down at the body. The girl's face was twisted in pain and fear. It was truly a horrible crime scene to be present, and he could see why Gordon was so upset.

"Alice Cro. Twenty years old. Her car was found in the parking garage where she works. She must have been abducted from the walk to her car. We found traces of some unknown drug in her mouth. We're sending samples to the Medical Examiner as we speak. I definitely wouldn't wanted to have been in her position though."

"Because she was alive when he started cutting that message into her?"

"How do you know? We thought that he cut her throat first and then carved the message."

"The scars from the message started trying to clot themselves. You can see the basis of scabs forming where the cuts are. If she were dead before that, her body wouldn't have tried to clot the wounds. He carved the message first. Then, he went for the throat."

Gordon shook his head again. "I really shouldn't have asked. I didn't need to know that much. Dealing with the teachers was enough. One of them came in this morning and saw the body before her classes started. I thank God that no children saw that body. It might have scarred them for life."

"I'll do what I can," said Batman briefly. He was too disgusted to say much, and there were no clues at the scene itself.

"Oh, wait. The press is swarming 11th Street outside. How did you get in without bei-," started Commissioner Gordon, but Batman had already vanished. "Oh, why do I even bother?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

"But, Master Bruce, perhaps the book offers clues in a metaphoric way? Perhaps you could consult an English professor about the Mad Tea Party and see if he or she has something to say about it?"

Alfred and Batman had been sitting in the cave for roughly an hour now trying to figure out the Mad Hatter's clues.

"I don't think that Tetch wants anyone to have to read into this, Alfred," replied Batman in his thinking voice. "It's pretty clear so far anyways. We know that he's followed the Mad Tea Party scene very closely and literally so far. The 'No room!' quote is the first thing that the Mad Hatter says at the party. It was also quite literal since he left the cell room when he wrote it. At the first murder, he cut the hair off the head of the girl. That was the Mad Hatter's first real quote to Alice at the Tea Party. 'You hair wants cutting.' He also took of her head…perhaps that's a reference to the Queen of Hearts."

"Off with her head. But I doubt it, sir."

"So do I. It just fits with the hair since cutting her hair wouldn't kill her like taking off her head would. The next death was in a school. It makes sense because the Mad Hatter's next line in the book is 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' which was also carved into her body."

"But why did The Mad Hatter carve the message into her and not into the first victim?" asked Alfred. It almost seemed as if Alfred knew the answer but was goading Batman to see it.

Batman sat and thought for a moment. "Because he was treating her like the writing desk she was on," he said, the message finally dawning on him.

"That's what I took it to mean. But it still makes no sense."

"Of course it does, Alfred. The first girl. Her name was Alice Lockhart. Lockhart. Lock, meaning a lock of hair. It's literal!" Batman turned to his computer and pulled the information that he needed from it. "The second victim's name was Alice Cro. A play on words. Crow, like the bird. Almost a direct reference to the raven in the riddle."

"And so the raven was like the writing desk because you write on it," answered Alfred shuddering. Just thinking of what the girl could have possibly looked like was a horrible thought.

"And what's the next line that the Mad Hatter says in the book?"

"Erm…" Alfred opened the book to the place that was marked. "Not the same thing a bit! You might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'," said Alfred quickly.

"Eating. He's striking at a restaurant next, Alfred."

"Well, yes, sir. But which restaurant? There must be a hundred restaurants in Gotham City. It could be any of them."

"You're right." Batman was at a loss. Sure, knowing the next place was a restaurant narrowed down the next crime scene considerably, but it was far from useful. There were just too many options to choose from. "We're missing something here, Alfred. But what is it?"

"I don't know, sir. I don't know."

Just then, the police radio monitor that batman had installed in the Bat-Cave buzzed to life. Listening, both Alfred and Batman's hearts sank. It seems they wouldn't need to pick the next crime scene after all. It was "Little Italy" on 17th Street. The next girl had already been murdered.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 

Commissioner Gordon sat at his desk, the paperwork atop it piling up faster than he could finish it. He opened up one of his desk drawers, removed a bottle from it, and took a few swigs from it before placing it back in the drawer.

"Gordon, the city needs your awareness. Alcohol won't help the situation."

"Well, I need it regardless of what the city needs right now," replied Gordon swiveling in his chair to see Batman standing there barely out of the shadows. "It's the only thing stopping me from having a complete emotional breakdown. I've never seen such horrors in my life. The Mad Hatter is more insane than we thought possible."

"I heard what he did to the new victim, Alice Mellone."

"He choked her with bread," cried Gordon as he threw his arms in the air. "It was disgusting. Her face twisted in fear and pain as she asphyxiated on garlic bread. I'll never eat Italian again. Not after seeing that. The tears. Her purple skin. The way her eyes strained just to get one more breath of-"

"Gordon. We have a job to do. As horrible as it is, we have to catch this madman before he causes more damage. I know that what you've seen will leave a bad impression upon you, but you need to set it aside for now. We have to stop him."

"I know what you're saying makes sense, Batman, but…the Mad Hatter…what is he trying to accomplish. I mean, before it was about love or revenge. There's no motive here. He just kills. And he kills brutally."

"So do others, Gordon." Batman walked over and put a gloved hand on the Commissioner's shoulder trying to reassure him. "The Mad Hatter has failed in the past to accomplish his goals, and he's maybe just trying something new."

"Well, it's working!" yelled Gordon. He opened the desk drawer again and uncorked the bottle.

"We'll get him."

Gordon looked at the bottle. His eyes welled up with tears. "We better." He threw the open bottle at the trash can across the room. It landed in the bottom with a smashing sound. "We better."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

Batman used his binoculars to spy down at the gathering crowds. This had to be the next place for the Mad Hatter to strike. It was almost too simple. And it was the only place that made sense.

Alfred and he had sat in the Batcave for only a few minutes before it suddenly came to them.

"Perhaps, sir, we should find the next Alice that the Mad Hatter may kidnap," Alfred had said. "Alice Mellone was a cheap shot to the clue. Melon being a type of food, but we may never have guessed that." Alfred had to admit that the Hatter was smarter than he was given credit.

"Done, Alfred. I have a list of every Alice in this city. After a search for keywords in the computer, I came up with only one name that makes much sense."

"The next quote is 'What day of the month is it?' What did you come up with?"

"Alice Day. Unfortunately, she's on vacation. There was no way to reach her."

"I don't think that will stop the Mad Hatter."

"I don't either. I have a feeling that she's already been kidnapped. I think our best bet may just be to find where the next murder will take place before it happens. But 'What day of the month is it?' is sort of vague."

Alfred considered for a moment. "Perhaps it has something to do with a calendar shop?" he asked not really believing that to be true.

"I checked. We don't have an actual calendar shop. Most bookstores and novelty shops sell calendars, but there's no shop in Gotham devoted to only calendars."

"Maybe it's something related then to the date."

Batman turned to see what day it was. "July 4th…" he said.

"July 4th? As in the American Independence day? But what does that have to do with anything?"

Batman's mouth hung open. "The fireworks celebration tonight. In the main square. He wouldn't dare."

"I believe that publicity is exactly what the Mad Hatter has in mind," said Alfred sagely.

And so, Batman had sat up high above the streets watching the crowds gathering below for the fireworks celebration. Would the mad Hatter actually strike here, and if he did, where in this mass of people was he? Batman did his best to spot a top hat with a size card sticking out its side, but he saw nothing of that kind at all. He did see a good many pointy hats though. Unhelpful as they were.

He searched the crowd three times before releasing a sigh. Nothing. He glanced over to the place where the fireworks were about to shoot off and saw people moving about. He looked back at the crowd but suddenly did a double take to the spot where the fireworks were being shot off. There shouldn't be anyone over there. The fireworks were set to shoot off in three minutes, and personnel were supposed to be cleared away.

He used his binoculars again to search out the area, and he saw a girl strapped and struggling on the launchpad. She was tied right above one of the firework cannons. And it was pointing straight at her heart.

Batman shot his grappling hook onto the nearest building and swung down towards the crowd below him. He checked his stopwatch. Two minutes until the show started. He swung over the crowds' heads. He heard them shout his name and point excitedly up at him as he swung, but he didn't have time to pay attention to that. He had roughly a minute and a half to reach the girl, untie her, and get out of that dangerous area.

He alit on the ground and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Luckily, the muscles in his legs were worked out every day, and he was able to reach her on the launchpad with a minute to go.

"I'll get you free," he said to the struggling girl.

She stopped struggling enough for him to unstrap her hands and feet. He also removed the tape over her mouth. "Thanks," she said, rubbing her wrists, which were red from the rope she had been tied with.

"Time for thanks later, Alice," said Batman realizing he had ten seconds to get them clear. He grabbed her around the waist, grabbed a batarang around his belt since he had lost his grappling hook, and threw it thirty feet away at a passing truck. The batarang had been attached to a cord, which Batman wrapped around himself. The moving truck didn't have to go far before the cord became taut, and both Batman and the girl flew into the air away from the fireworks as they shot off into reds and blues.

His body ached from the speed of the truck, and he did his best not to fall to the ground where both he and the girl would be dragged along the blacktop of Gotham streets. Finally, the truck stopped, and Batman was able to release the cord and the girl.

She turned to look at the fireworks launchpad they had barely escaped. She shivered thinking of what could have happened to her if she had still been attached to the rocket underneath her. She saw the police and an EMT running towards her. Before they took her away, she decided she needed to thank her hero. She turned, but Batman had already vanished.

Commissioner Gordon was the first to see the girl. She looked questioningly into his face. "Don't worry," Gordon said without even having to hear what she said. "He does it all the time."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

"But, Master Bruce, you saved one. Doesn't that make you feel better?"

"Of course it does, Alfred. But the Hatter's still out there, and he's already concocted a new way to murder another Alice." Batman had wrapped his side in a bandage where the batarang cord from the Fourth of July celebration had given him rope burn.

"Well, we know pretty much where he's striking next. 'I told you butter wouldn't suit the works.' Sounds like he's hitting some sort of dairy factory. And there are only two in Gotham. That's better than not knowing at all or him striking at any restaurant in Gotham." Alfred had been trying to convince Batman that things were not as bad as they seemed ever since he had returned, but to no avail.

"It just doesn't make sense. I know the Mad Hatter is picking these locations on purpose. But what's the connection?" Batman turned on the television to his right. A news report was onscreen.

"At tonight's Independence Day celebration, Batman saved 25-year-old Alice Day from the hands of the fiendish Mad Hatter. Gothamites have expressed their newfound fear for the formerly almost comical villain. He has been the perpetrator of many murders in the past few days, all his victims being named Alice. This latest attempt on the life of an Alice was on the fireworks launching site at the intersection of Main Street and 21st Street."

Batman's eyes widened. "Wait, what?" he said quickly.

"I'm sorry, sir. What's the problem?"

"Alfred, what paragraph is the day of the month quote in?"

Alfred, the realization dawning on him, ran his finger down the pages starting at the beginning of the chapter entitled "A Mad Tea-Party". "It's the 21st line, sir."

"The 21st line. Of course! And the first one about cutting hair?"

Alfred did a quick check but knew the answer even before replying. "The 9th line. And the hair salon was on 9th street if I'm not mistaken, sir."

"That's right. And the school was on 11th Street. How much you want to bet that the raven quote is in the 11th paragraph?"

"I don't want to bet, sir. I see it is."

"Then, what paragraph is the butter quote in?"

"The 23rd paragraph, sir."

Batman consulted his computer. "Then, it's 'Moo-Cow Dairy' on 23rd Street."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 

"yOu MaY oBsErVe A bReAd-AnD-bUtTeR-fLy. iTs wInGs ArE tHiN sLiCeS oF bReAd-AnD-bUtTeR, iTs BoDy Is A cRuSt, aNd ItS hEaD iS a LuMp oF sUgAr," the Mad Hatter recited in a creepy yet amused voice. "Oh, the gnat knew precisely what he was saying, wasn't he?"

The tied-up girl on the catwalk answered with muffled cries as she tried to scream. Unfortunately for her, her mouth was taped like the girl at the Fourth of July celebration. She fidgeted but could barely move.

"I would have let you out, but you've already proven that you can't be trusted," said the Mad Hatter, gesturing at the small bite mark on his wrist.

"You're lucky, Jervis. I would've bitten you harder," came a voice from the shadows of the catwalk.

The Mad Hatter chuckled. "I knew you would figure out my little game, Batman. You always do."

"It took me longer than usual, Jervis. You took quite a different approach this time." Batman's face was not amused, even though his voice sounded that way.

"I had to."

"Why did you have to, Jervis? Why? Why did you have to kill all those girls?"

"Because I did!" yelled the Mad Hatter. "They had to understand! They all had to understand!"

"Who had to understand?" Batman wasn't a fool. He realized that he had to keep Tetch talking if he wanted to stop the murder of another innocent girl.

"Everyone! They all overlook me! 'Who's the Mad Hatter?' they ask. 'He's a villain?' they ask. 'Wonderland's a wimpy thing to base crimes off of,' they say. With the likes of Two-Face, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, and that clown the Joker, I never get anyone to recognize me for what I am. I'm just as deadly as they, but no one ever remembers me. I made them remember. They all know me now. They all fear me. I've heard it on the news. All the women are afraid. Did you know that less people in Gotham would even think of naming their daughters Alice just because of me? That's respect. That's the respect I deserve."

Batman shook his head. "But there were other ways, Jervis. These were innocent women."

"No one's innocent anymore, Batman! No one! I've seen it myself. People in this city treat others like dirt. They hurt their feelings. They stamp on their emotions. I never caused that much damage. All I did was put a few girls out of their misery in this miserable city."

"There were other ways-"

"There were not any other ways! I thought long and hard about this all that time I spent in Arkham! The Arkham that YOU put me in!" The Mad Hatter grabbed the girl by the hair and tossed her over the railing of the catwalk.

Without wasting an instant, Batman shot another of his grappling hooks swung down, catching the girl before she fell in a vat of churning butter. She may have lived three seconds in that vat before the churn crushed her body in a batch of butter.

Batman looked up from the ground where he dropped the girl off. He saw the Mad Hatter running off the catwalk. The Dark Knight removed a gas pellet from the utility belt around his waist. Taking aim, he launched it to where the Mad Hatter was escaping. It burst as it hit the catwalk, and a green gas poured out knocking the Hatter to the metallic floor with a clack.

The Mad Hatter looked down at the ground, coughing the green smoke out of his lungs. He scrambled towards the door at the end of the catwalk, but his hands wrapped around a black boot that was standing in his path. He looked up and saw Batman's mouth underneath his cowl.

Batman didn't smile, but his voice was lighter than the Mad Hatter had ever heard it. "'The time has come,' the Walrus said, 'To talk of many things.'"

The Mad Hatter stared into Batman's eyes. Tears formed in his own as he completed the quote he knew so well. "Of ShOeS aNd ShIpS aNd sEaLiNg WaX. oF cAbbAgEs….AnD kInGs."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 

"I assure you. The puzzle books aren't far away, Edward. Patience is a virtue," said the attendant as he walked past the cell holding the Riddler. He continued walking down the hall.

"No magazines yet, Pamela. I'm sure they'll be here any day now."

The attendant kept walking. He waved at Harley Quinn and Two-Face. He looked down the hall. The Joker was writing something furiously in a notebook. "You better not be plotting an escape down there, J-Man," yelled the attendant. "Don't make me confiscate your supplies," he said with a smile.

Finally, he approached a cell which had just had its light bulb replaced and its bars fixed. "Hey, Jervis," said the attendant. "I heard you had quite a romp out there. Glad to see you back," he said before walking on down the hall.

Inside the cell, Jervis Tetch AKA the Mad Hatter smiled a fiendish smile. "He remembered. They remember."


End file.
